For the first time in NHL history the New York Islanders will hand fans a direct role in creating the club’s next third jersey, the team has announced. Supporters can use an online tool to combine logos, colours, fonts and design elements, then vote for the winner; the chosen shirt will be worn officially from the 2027/28 season.
Why the Islanders are betting on co-creation
The decision is more than a novelty. Clubs build home and away visual identities carefully, but third or alternate jerseys have become a major source of incremental revenue and social content. The Islanders’ pitch sells both an object and an emotional stake. Allowing fans to be co-creators turns a single merch drop into a sustained activation, generating social media content, campaign opportunities and repeat purchasing from collectors who already own home and away kits.
How the process will work
According to the club’s outline, the online design tool will let users mix emblems, colourways and typographic choices and apply additional graphic elements. Submissions will be narrowed and ultimately decided by a public vote. The project brings marketing, merchandising, club brand teams, kit suppliers, sponsors and league approvals into the loop, because every third jersey must balance visual impact with digital platform performance, colour psychology and broad marketability.
Merchandising logic meets brand storytelling
Third jerseys now serve multiple on- and off-ice functions. On the merchandising side they are a repeat revenue driver because collectors treat alternates and reverse-retro editions as separate purchases from regular home and away shirts. From a brand perspective they let a club tell a new story, highlight regional ties or revisit archival crests. The Islanders move deliberately leans on both: fans are not only buying a product, they are legitimising a narrative about the club’s identity.
Islanders identity, from Long Island crest to the Fisherman
The Islanders have a long record of experimenting with visual identity. The original 1972 crest, which stylised Long Island and incorporated a hockey stick, became associated with the four Stanley Cups of the early 1980s. The mid 1990s Fisherman logo produced intense backlash and was largely discarded within a few seasons. Yet two decades later that same Fisherman motif became a sought after collector item when it was reissued as part of a reverse-retro collection, selling out quickly. That history illustrates how an alternate can move from misstep to cult object over time.
Where this sits in the wider NHL picture
Not every club treats alternates the same way. Legacy franchises such as the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings typically shield their primary crests from reinvention, protecting brand heritage and long-term brand equity. Younger clubs and recent expansions tend to use third jerseys to experiment and recruit new audiences. The Islanders’ fan-driven model compresses both strategies: it embraces experimentation while seeking the cultural legitimacy that comes when supporters embrace a design.
For front offices this is a tactical play across marketing, ticketing and community engagement. For fans it turns a familiar artefact of the game into a participatory moment, where the crest on a player’s chest is partly chosen by the crowd that fills the seats and buys the shirts.